HP bumps layoffs up to 29,000, plans to invest more into R&D

In May, HP announced it would be cutting 27,000 jobs worldwide or about seven percent of its total workforce. However, yesterday ZDNet broke down HP's 10-Q quarterly SEC filing which spells out the elimination of 2,000 more jobs than previously stated, making for a grand total of 29,000 layoffs.

As previously announced, the enormous reduction in force will be spread over a period of two years, purportedly to reduce impact on morale. In fact, HP has already sparked the process by shedding 3,800 jobs or about 13 percent of its total goal by 2014. Thus far, the majority of positions snipped by HP have been those of employees working in the company's enterprise arm -- servers, datacenters and consulting. Expect more to come soon.

The filing details the company's "2012 Plan", a plan in which HP hopes to consolidate datacenters, reduce workforce and increase R&D spending for services, hardware and software. HP is selling its current vision to investors as a way to "simplify business processes, accelerate innovation and deliver better results".

HP is no stranger to cutting jobs. The company had struggled long before Meg Whitman took over as chief executive and has continued to do so under her lead, botching and otherwise missing potentially lucrative ventures like tablets and phones.

According to various market research outfits, HP still holds the top spot for PC shipments (well, if you don't count tablets). Interestingly though, HP's operating profit per employee has remained significantly lower than that of competing companies, namely Dell, IBM and Apple. Per employee, HP generates about $35,000 in profit. By comparison, Dell makes about $48,000 per head while both Apple and IBM rake in $49,000 per each.